MEET THE MENTORS
SDF’s next round of mentors will be announced in February.
Please contact our Program Manager, Christopher Everett at chris@southerndocumentaryfund.
SDF’s next round of mentors will be announced in February.
Please contact our Program Manager, Christopher Everett at chris@southerndocumentaryfund.
The SDF Mentorship Program is designed to pair established filmmakers and industry experts with emerging and new filmmakers. We provide support, which includes one-on-one mentorship, roundtable discussions, and feedback on work samples.
Colleen Thurston is a documentary storyteller and film curator from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has created non-fiction film and videos for the Smithsonian Channel, Vox, and museums, public television, and federal and tribal organizations. Grounding her practice in place-based narratives, her films intertwine Indigenous world views and exploratory artistic approaches. Her work has been supported by Firelight Media, the Sundance Institute, Patagonia, ITVS, Vision Maker Media, the Ford Foundation, the Redford Center, and Creative Capital. Colleen’s first feature documentary DROWNED LAND (2025) examines the cycle of displacement as it is related to resource extraction in her tribe, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Colleen is the project producer for the Indigenous video series, Native Lens, and is a senior programmer for Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. She is a current Tulsa Artist Fellow and an International Documentary Association Fellow.
Award-winning filmmaker Eli Yetter-Bowman (they/them) grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina as a curious problem solver. They attended UNC Chapel Hill to pursue a career in public health but saw that many complex issues lacked creative communication. They founded Ethereal Films to help solve problems with media, storytelling, and impact campaigns. Their work bounces between directing films, leading impact campaigns with events & conversations, and research as an Affiliate at the UNC School of Public Health. Elijah’s work has received several awards including “Excellence in Science Communication” award from the National Academies of Sciences and has been featured in Forbes, People Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and Telegram. Eli has raised over $850k in funds for documentary projects to date.
Pilar Timpane is the lead filmmaker and producer at Teacup Productions. Her documentary storytelling blends intimacy with advocacy, often focusing on women’s lives and community-based change. She produced The Last Partera (2025, dir. Victoria Bouloubasis & Ned Phillips), a feature about a 100-year-old midwife in Costa Rica, and recently co-directed A House for My Mother (w/ Benjamin Nero), winner of Best Documentary Short at the 2025 Oxford Film Festival. She also co-directed Santuario (2019, w/ Christine Delp; PBS/Al Jazeera), which won Best Documentary Short at the New Orleans Film Festival and other honors. She is currently directing her first feature film about the role of women in the Catholic Church. Pilar is an alumna of the ITVS/NEH Humanities Fellowship, Working Films, Tribeca Film Institute, Logan Nonfiction Program, and the Southern Producers Lab. She holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and a master’s from Duke Divinity School. She lives with her family in Durham, NC.
Check out our upcoming opportunities to hear from our awesome mentors! We invite you to take a quick break with us to learn more about documentary world.
One-on-one mentorship sessions and mentorship roundtables are only available to SDF supported makers at this time. An SDF supported maker is someone who has received a grant through SDF, or is fiscally sponsored by SDF. We will be hosting a limited number of mentorship webinars in the future that will be open to all.
Get ready for another 3 days of learning, networking and good genuine Southern community fun!
This Giving Tuesday, join Southern Documentary Fund in reaching our $5,000 goal to support Southern filmmakers. Your gift amplifies diverse voices, fuels powerful storytelling, and ensures Southern stories continue to be told.
